In all, a line of more than roughly 400 kids — dressed as the Pokemon Pikachu, Toy Story’s Sheriff Woody, random witches, Disney princesses and everything in between — filed through the back door of Brookside Elementary Monday afternoon and frolicked in large circles around the grass field for the school’s Annual Halloween Parade.

“It’s one of those traditions we have,” said Sandra Faioes, school principal, who dressed as jelly, matching school site director Rob Pennington as peanut butter. “It doesn’t really cost much and pretty much everyone has access to it.”

The event has been a school tradition at Brookside for years and is something many of the kids look forward to in the autumn season, Faioes said.

“They love it,” she said. “It’s sort of the start of the holiday season.”

For the event, students were allowed to create or purchase their own costumes. Students that did not want to participate were allowed to opt out and take part in another event. Brookside provided students who wanted to participant but showed up without costumes — whether they couldn’t afford them or merely forgot them — with costumes that have been donated to the school.

This year’s event started at 2:40 p.m. and wrapped up just after 3 p.m. Children were led out to the back of the school by teachers to the sound of classic Halloween songs such as the “Monster Mash” and “Thriller.” Dozens of parents encircled the field to watch their kids march around the field and snapped photos on their smart phones.

Shiloh Martin-Adam, president of the school’s PTO, said the event is well received among most kids — and families.

“The only thing more popular is field day,” Martin-Adam said.

This year marked the third year for the accompanying Annual Pumpkin Contest, where students from each class decorate a pumpkin based on character from a book. This year’s entries ranged from pumpkin Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to a troll to Moby Dick.

“We try to do as much as possible with our students,” Faioes said. “This is just one of them.”